Archive for April, 2019

The debut from Polish pagan black metallers Popiół is out now through Godz ov War Productions, and looks to add itself to the ranks of slightly off-piste black metal albums that melts folk and pagan rituals into the belching cauldron of black metal and creates something furious

A thoroughly deep, dense and absorbing album from the outset, ‘Zabobony’ hurls itself from your speakers with a Drudkh-like style. Opener ‘Wybiło’ twists and writhes through pagan atmospherics, and there is a definitive feel of eerie forests where dark and eldritch rituals are performed. The cold chanting of ‘Gdy słońce zgaśnie’ lends a touch of ancient darkness to the cascading tremolo riffing, and the smatterings of acoustic guitar are as haunting and blackened as the fiery force of distortion scorched riffing. Popiół infuse every piece with a melodic melancholy, and the richness of the textures woven through the songs belie their short career. Popiół are not afraid of the sweeping, majestic song structures that create these vast vistas of black metal; landscapes and environments that creak with an ancient knowledge and wistful remembrance.

‘Zabobony’ is a record that enchants and bewitches, drawing you in with the promise of bestowing a sight of the beyond. I was hooked within two songs, and an hour later I was ready to hear it all again. Intensely melodic and drowning in atmosphere, this is black metal for an ancient age.

A two man, ferociously black metal machine, Feral Light’s second album ‘Fear Rides a Shadow’ is out now through Pulverised Records, and is another example of the malevolent fury seeping through the USBM scene.

The cold riffs permeating the opener, ‘Wake’, feels like the precursor to oblivion; the oblivion that arrives with the cascading savagery of ‘Arrow/Beast’, that is possessed of a thrilling juxtaposition of almost black and roll still riffing while being infested with a toxic, black metal fury. The production lends the guitar work a rough edge, and the unholy screams and growls accompany this ‘feral’ attitude. It immediately makes songs like ‘Spirit Inanimate’ feel more memorable, and some of the more unusual melody lines, particularly in the introverted rage of ‘Psychic Dirt’ are immediately earworms.

If you don’t feel moved by the type of black metal thrust upon you in album highlight ‘Cold Monochrome’, then your lust for black metal is truly one dimensional. Feral Light bring us the evolution, where the blasting and shrieking ferocity of the past meets the shapeshifting progression of the future. ‘Fear Rides a Shadow’ is an album that shows no fear, and takes no prisoners.

From Milwaukee, Wisconsin comes the second record from death metal destroyers Pig’s Blood. ‘A Flock Slaughtered’ is out now through Godz ov War Productions, and is a half hour assault to the head and neck area.

The rumbling savagery of opener ‘Gates Ripped Open’ lays the groundwork for the aural smackdown about to occur. This is brutally heavy, with a dense chainsawing guitar tone raping and pillaging your senses while a thunderous low end and battery of drums shakes the ground. What I really appreciate about this record is the thickness of the sound. It’s suffocatingly heavy, with barely any chinks of light poking through. Throat shredding growls howl over the churning Obituary worship of ‘Violent Spirit of Decadence’, while there’s a sludgey Autopsy-esque nightmare waiting those who listen to ‘Maniacal Triumph’s Embrace’.

‘A Flock Slaughtered’ is over before you’re really ready for it to be, and I itched to turn it straight back on. Primal evil soaks through each riff, blood gargles in every growl, and the maddening stabbing solos that punctuate the tracks combine to create a great record. Get this asap if you like your death to be a little dark and dense.